by Mohammed Bello Doka
15 June, 2026
The news hit the airwaves on the morning of June 15, 2026, with all the fanfare of a major military victory. The Defence Headquarters announced that troops of the Nigerian Army, supported by the Air Force, had successfully rescued Mrs. Amina Abubakar, wife of the late Major General Rabe Abubakar, from bandits. A press release was signed, a general spoke, and the nation was expected to celebrate. But as the initial excitement fades, one uncomfortable question refuses to go away: Did the government actually rescue Mrs. Abubakar, or did someone simply pay ransom?
This is not an idle question. It is a matter of life, death, and public trust. Nigerians have heard this script before. The army announces a dramatic rescue in Katsina, or Niger, or Kebbi, or Kogi. There is a press conference, a rescued victim, and then silence. No bandit is arrested. No weapon is recovered. No single criminal is neutralized. The bandits simply vanish into the bush after allegedly shooting the hostage and fleeing. That story has become so predictable that many Nigerians now openly mock it. How is it possible that in every single operation, the military manages to locate bandits, engage them, rescue a victim, but never once captures or kills any of the kidnappers? The only logical explanation that fits the evidence is that a ransom was paid, and the rescue story is simply a face-saving cover.
The case of Mrs. Abubakar is even more troubling when you examine the timeline. Just two days before her rescue, a video emerged showing the late General Rabe Abubakar, his wife, and other captives alive with their captors. That video proved that the bandits were holding multiple people. So when the military stormed Tunga Village and rescued only Mrs. Abubakar, the vital question becomes: What happened to the others? Did they all simply vanish? Did none of them escape during the chaos? Did the military not attempt to rescue anyone else? Or were the other captives deliberately left behind because only one ransom was paid?
The family of the late General has already exposed a major hole in the government’s official narrative. Yesterday, the son of the late general, Isyaka Rabe Abubakar, asked a question that should shake every Nigerian to their core. He asked how the government retrieved the corpse of his father. Think about that carefully. The government claims General Rabe died in captivity from diabetes and hypertension. But the family says their father was not diabetic. The Katsina State government insists he died of natural causes, yet the family is completely in the dark about how his body was even recovered. Isyaka stated publicly that the family has no idea how the corpse was brought back. Some security sources told the media that the bandits handed over the body at Karaduwa bridge after negotiations. Other sources claimed the body was simply dumped near a sawmill. Which one is true? And if the government negotiated for the release of a dead body, why was that same negotiation not used to secure the release of his wife while she was still alive?
Here is the even deeper question that no one in power wants to answer. If the military had the intelligence, the firepower, and the tactical capability to locate Mrs. Abubakar and force the bandits to flee, why could they not have done the same for her husband before he died? Why could they not have rescued the other captives seen in that video? The only honest answer is that the military does not have the capacity to rescue hostages by force in most of these situations. What actually happens is that families or state governments negotiate with bandits, pay millions or even billions in ransom, and then the military stages a fake rescue to avoid admitting that the government is funding terrorism.
The pattern is undeniable. In state after state, the same story repeats. A kidnapping. A ransom demand. Silence from the military. Then suddenly, a rescue announcement with no arrests, no bodies, and no recovered weapons. Meanwhile, the National Bureau of Statistics estimates that Nigerians paid over N2.3 trillion in ransom between May 2023 and April 2024. That money is financing the bandits who are terrorizing the North-West. If the government is secretly paying ransom and calling it a rescue, then it is not fighting banditry. It is subsidizing it.
Mrs. Abubakar is safe, and that is a relief. But Nigerians deserve to know the truth. How was she really freed? Was it a gunfight or a bank transfer? How was her husband’s corpse recovered? Why does the Katsina State government claim natural causes while the family denies he was diabetic? Why were no bandits arrested or killed? Where are the other captives seen in that video? Until the government answers these questions with evidence, not press releases, every Nigerian has the right to assume that a ransom was paid and that the rescue is nothing more than a scripted performance. The truth is not a threat to national security. Lies are.
Mohammed Bello Doka can be reached via [email protected]
Abuja Network News
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Opinion